Sickness
by Evie-Ruby-1994
Summary: Mal hasn't seen or heard from Ben in a few days. Worried she goes to Castle Beast where she finds Ben had been in bed, ill. Mal stays to care for Ben. Prompt from Gummybear1178.


**This One Shot is based off a prompt I was sent by Gummybear1178.**

To say Mal was worried was a bit of an understatement. She hadn't seen Ben for two days and he didn't answer when she called or text him. Which is why she found herself stood at the doors of Castle Beast. She had barely slept in her worry over why Ben was ignoring her and was starting to think he changed his mind about being with her. Tiredly she lifted her hand and knocked on the door of the Castle before she began fidgeting with Ben's signet ring.

Before she could begin to over think things though the door swung open to reveal a rather stressed looking Mrs Potts. Mal couldn't help but raise her eyebrow at the normal calm and collected woman looking the way she did. "Oh Mal, dear. I am so glad you're here." The older woman said as she grasped the teens wrist gently and pulled her into the castle.

"Why? What's going on?" Mal asked the woman, confused by the way she had been greeted. This was certainly out of the ordinary.

"Ben's ill dear." Mrs Potts told me and Mal couldn't help but worry for her boyfriend. On the Isle being ill was never a good sign, to show you were ill was to show weakness. The only time anyone on the Isle showed they were ill was if it was serious. Why she knew Auradon wasn't like that she still worried about it. Mrs Potts saw her concern and explained further. "He's got the flu but he's being rather stubborn about it. He refused to let us call you, he almost passed out trying to get up to go to a meeting instead of his parents going and it's just taken me an hour to get him to take his medicine."

Mal couldn't help but roll her eyes. Of course Ben was being stubborn about this. He hated not being able to do anything almost as much as Mal hated it. "Where is he?" She asked, knowing he wouldn't be happy about not being able to do anything.

Mrs Potts smiled at the purple haired teen before gesturing upstairs. "He's in his room." She stated before handing Mal a small bottle of tablets. "He needs to take two of these every six hours. He's only just taken two." She told the teen, who with a nod of her head walked up the stairs towards her boyfriends room.

A few minutes later Mal was pushing the door open as quietly as possible. If Ben was asleep she didn't want to wake him so she carefully slipped into his room and silently closed the door. But as she turned she was met with Ben's tired teal eyes looking at her. "Mal?" He croaked out before he started coughing. She cringed at how his voice sounded, he really didn't look or sound well. "What are you doing here?" The teen King croaked out as she slowly made her way over to his bed.

Since he was curled onto his side in an almost fetal position, Mal carefully sat next to his stomach. "You didn't answer any of my calls or texts. I was worried about you." She admitted, brushing some of his light brown hair off of his forehead. She couldn't get over how pale he looked. "You hungry?" She asked. The purple haired teen had noticed Mrs Potts had not mentioned when Ben last ate but from the looks of him it had been a while.

Ben smiled slightly as he nodded to her, his throat hurt to much right now to even try and speak again. Mal smiling before once more standing, this time placing the tablet bottle on the bedside table. She was a little unsure of herself, having never had to look after someone who was ill. But for Ben she would suck it up and deal with it. "I'll go get you something." She told him, kissing his forehead gently before heading back downstairs and into the kitchen.

Mal was back in the room a few minutes later with a large bowl of ice cream for her boyfriend. Gently she helped him sit up before handing him the bowl, she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. She could see the pain on his face as he swallowed the ice cream and wished she could take the pain away from him. She sat next to him as he finished the bowl, almost two hours later and Mal couldn't help but be thankful she had placed a charm on the ice cream to stop it melting. And before long Mal found her boyfriend was once more asleep.

Leaning across his sleeping form she picked up the thermometer, slipping it into Ben's mouth as she moved back to her previous position. She had waited until he had fallen asleep as she didn't want to have to fight him on it like Mrs Potts had to earlier, the older woman had told her while she was dishing up Ben's ice cream. Once the small white thermometer beeped she took it out and breathed a sigh of relief. It was down from what Mrs Potts had said it was earlier and Mal was happy about that.

After laying him down and covering him over she took a book off of his shelf and moved to sit in the bay window that overlooked the castle grounds. After settling herself in the window seat so she was still facing the bed Mal opened the book and began reading but for once in her life she found herself unable to focus on the written words. She was far too worried about Ben to focus.

Eventually Mal gave up on reading and settled for staring/looking out of the window. Her eyes kept glacing back to the beautiful rose garden in the castle grounds and made a mental picture of what it looked like so she could sketch it when she got back to her dorm. But she knew she wouldn't be going anywhere until Ben was fully fit again. She had no idea how much time had passed but she was interrupted by a soft knocking.

Running on barely any sleep Mal simply waved her hand in the direction of the door, opening it without having to get up. Hearing heels approach her she finally turned her head to see Belle walking towards her. "Hi, Mal." Belle greeted the teen with a warm, motherly smile.

Mal couldn't help but smile back. "Hi." She responded quietly. Neither woman wanted to wake Ben up.

"How is he?" The brunette mother asked the teen she was as her daughter.

The purplette couldn't help but sigh a little. "He's still quite ill." She stated, her eyes flitting to the bed holding her sleeping boyfriend. "He ate some ice cream earlier that helped to bring his temperature down a little. He's been asleep since but I need to actually wake him up now so he can take his tablets." Mal explained.

Belle couldn't help but be shocked. Ben had refused anything, including ice cream, since he had become ill. Yet Mal had been here six hours and gotten him to eat. It never failed to amaze the motehr how much of an impact Mal had on her son. Not only was he happier and more settled then he had ever been but he also listened to her when usually he would argue if it came from anyone else. She watched as Mal stood and walked over to the bed. The former Queen didn't want to intrude but she knew her son hated taking tablets and wanted to be nearby incase he gave the purpel haired girl any trouble.

Slowly Mal roused a tired Ben. "Hey." She greeted him as he opened his eyes and locked his tired gaze into her eyes. "You need to take your tablets now." She stated getting two tablets from the bottle and holding them out to him as she shuffled to sit up.

"I don't need to take them." Ben croaked out stubbornly. Mal couldn't help but roll her eyes but before she could say anything Ben spoke again. "I'm not taking them." He said stubbornly.

Mal however had already had enough of this. She knew and he knew that he had to take these tablets of he would only get worse. "Benjamin Florian." She stated earning Ben's immediate sttention and a surprised but proud look from Belle. "That is enough. You need to take these. So you have two choices. You can take them yourself or I will make you take them." She said/demanded.

Ben knew when he was beat and extremely reluctantly took the pills from Mal's hand and swallowed them with some water from his bedside table. Smiling Mal moved to sit beside him and Ben curled into her side, immediately falling back to sleep. Neither teen noticing Belle leave, smiling at Mal as she did.

 **Author's Note: My other storied will all be uploaded in the next few days (I am surrently proof reading them all). I am considering extending this to a two shot depending on the interest I get. Please review and let me know what you think x**


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